Defensive play ONE
First in a potential series of defensive hands

In the beginning of the forum, I posted some 20 slam play hands in this forum called "good idea" I think. The purpose was to show easy slam hands that at least five people screwed up on BBO during the play.

Now I will try a similar series related to hands that more than a few people botched the defense. These are all beginner/intermediate hands. The bidding is from at least one of the tables but is similar to auctions from many tables.

If you played this hand, please don't share the hidden hands with others. Advanced or higher players, this isn't really for you. Answer in a few days, or use the spoiler tags. This is not a difficult hand (or else it wouldn't be in this forum) but does require some thought before playing. Nearly everyone got this hand wrong at the table 11 our 13 players got it wrong. The trick is to know why the right play is right, not just to find it given this history.

Opening lead ♣T, north plays the KING

This post has been edited by inquiry: 2011-August-25, 15:44
Reason for edit: to add the opening lead

Well, it looks like south is a minimum opener, which leaves 11-12 HCP for partner. Partner doesn't have the club ace. Partner probably has four clubs - if he had more he'd bid unusual 2NT most likely. So we know delcarer has four clubs and five spades, at most two diamonds which leaves 2-3 hearts.
So we need to ruff low and return a heart to finesse against declarer's possible heart ace. Declarer can go up with the ace, play two more rounds of trump, but we will score another trump trick and partner's supposed ace of diamonds and king of hearts before declarer has a chance to discard anything on the clubs. I think.

Nicely analyzed by Anthrax
.
Playing offense or defense, it is a good idea to count your tricks. You have two spade tricks, so you will need two red suit winners. You will get one, and only one, in diamonds so you need a heart trick. Your diamond trick will have to the ace, or you will need two heart tricks. What does this suggest for the defense?

On this hand, the West player was bidding some number of diamonds at almost every table, and when East ruffed the club opening lead, almost everyone returned a diamond. A couple of reasons for that, I guess. 1.) partner bid them, 2.) you can get enough ruff when partner wins his Ace, and 3.) dummy has a heart honor so some general rule might suggest lead up to weakness.

None of those reasons are good ones to lead a diamond. Let's start with the fact that one more club ruff would cost you a natural trump trick (but if you can get two more ruffs that would be very good). Second, your partners diamond trick will not be going anywhere. If your partner has the ♦A he will always score it, if he only has the ♦K, your side gets no diamond tricks.

The source of the fourth defensive trick has to be hearts. If partner has both aces, no harm no foul. If he has diamond ace and heart KING, partner will not be able to lead a heart from his side of the table. You need to return a heart in case partner has ♥K and ♦A,

Full analysis is probably something like what Anthrax stated. We don't think partner underled the ♣A, and of course, we think South has all five missing spades for his 1♠ bid. So whatever hcp partner has they are only in the red suits. Partner seems to lack a good sequence lead (no ♥AK, ♦AK, ♦KQJ. so at most has one heart honor (Ace or King) and a diamond holding headed by something like AQ, AQJ, AJ, KJ, or perhaps KQ. Partner probably doesn't have four hearts (no takeout double), seven diamonds (no jump to 3♦), or five clubs (as Anthrax said, no unusual 2NT). All that suggest partner might be 0=3=6=4, but it is not etched in stone. Turns out he was, but that is fairly immaterial here.

If declarer has 3♦, he will score 4♠, two diamond ruffs, three clubs, and a heart. Since you are sure declarer doesn't have 1♦, that means you need to play him for 2♦. That will give him the potential for 2♥, 1 ♦ ruff, 4♠ and 3♣, or even 4♣, 4♠, one red suit ace and a diamond ruff. You can ruff one more of his clubs, but then he takes five spades in hand.

After ruffing the ♣, the only defense that works is to return a heart immediately. That way, you will be able to score both your red suit winners. If south makes the mistake of ducking the heart return you could actually set this two tricks.

There is no reason not to play the club king, you'll have plenty of opportunities to unblock the ace later. Moreover, if you play low, both opponents immediately know you have the ace, so if it doesn't matter it is better technique to play the king.

On the same note as Han, it's better to ruff with anything except the 4 of spades. Just because ruffing higher cannot cost a trick, and so (I think) it is slightly better technique. If nothing else, it'll hide the spade situation from the declarer.

Bridge Personality: 44 44 43 34

Never tell the same lie twice. - Elim Garek on the real moral of "The boy who cried wolf"

Whether or not he plays the ♣K is irrelevant on this hand. On another hand perhaps it might help to be in dummy at trick 2 to lead trumps through the doubler.
Declarer is known to have some club length and all the top clubs so he can play them however he wants.

Interests:Bridge, classical music, skiing... but I spend more time earning a living than doing any of those

Posted 2011-August-29, 11:33

It's not a point about the defence, but the bidding. We defend correctly to get 4Sxx one off for +200.
5D looks a pretty solid contract to me. Make West's heart holding A9x rather than K9x and 6D has play. Perhaps when we have 4-card support and a void we should think of raising partner's suit.

Vuroth, to beat 4S we need 4 tricks. In neither of your constructions can we beat the contract. Whether declarer has 3 or 4 clubs is not so important, the point is that to have a chance to beat the contract we'll need to make a heart trick.